Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has called out Rangers manager Philippe Clement for being ironic following his comments in an exchange with Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers.
The verbal sparring comes ahead of the crucial fourth derby of the campaign between the Glasgow rivals at Parkhead this Saturday, where Celtic could nearly secure the Scottish Premiership title, with a win putting them ahead by six points with six left to play for.
Rodgers had light-heartedly mentioned that his team was ‘going to have fun’ in the upcoming derby—a comment that seemed to irritate Clement, who retorted the following day, “We’re going to have fun also.” This response did not sit well with Sutton, who viewed it as unnecessary and somewhat childish given the context.
The former Celtic striker and now Sky Sports pundit said on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast:
“I think Glasgow is getting to Big Phil, as it gets to everybody who plays or works in the city. It’s a goldfish bowl.
“It’s tense, but he also made a couple of reasonable points.
“He said they were behind when they came in by seven points and now it’s three, but they did have it in their hands. Rangers lost to Ross County and dropped points to Dundee.”
Clement had criticised Rodgers’ comment as disrespectful and claimed he would never say such a thing about an opponent, only to mirror Rodgers’ sentiment about having fun. Sutton found this particularly ironic, saying, “What was remarkably petty is that Philippe Clement said it was disrespectful towards his team and that he would never say that about an opponent.
“He then went out and did the interview with Sky and said that they were also going to have fun.
“You couldn’t quite make it up. It just adds a bit more spice to a game that doesn’t need any more spice.”
